Unit 5 APHuGeo Key Terms

agriculture

The process by which humans alter the landscape in order to raise crops and livestock for consumption and trade

Climate regions

Areas that have similar climate patterns generally based on their latitude and their location on coasts or continental interiors (Koppen Climate Classifications)

Commercial agriculture

Farmers grow crops and raise livestock for profit to sell to customers

Subsistence agriculture

Farmers consume the crops that they grow and raise, usually using simple tools and manual labor

Intensive agriculture

Farmers or ranchers use large amounts of inputs, such as energy, fertilizers, labor, or machines, to maximize yields from an area of land.

Extensive agriculture

Farmers use fewer amounts of inputs (labor and capital) and typically result in less yields

Central business district (CBD)

The central location within a city where the majority of consumer services are located

Pastoral nomadism (Nomadic herding)

Herders and families who move to do their farming, in various locations, difficult to do with amount of land available shrinking

Shifting cultivation

Subsistence agriculture in which farmers, usually in tropical climate regions, it is the practice of growing crops or grazing animals on a piece of land for a year or two.

Plantation agriculture

Large-scale commercial farming of one particular crop grown for markets often distant from the plantation.

Mixed Crop and Livestock

Intensive commercial integrated system in which both crops and livestock are raised for profit.

Agricultural landscape

Landscapes resulting from the interactions between farming activities and a location's natural environment

Commercial gardening

The way in which typical fruits and vegetables are grown in the US, farmers typically sell their products to distant markets.

Market gardening

Fruits and vegetables are grown near an urban market and sold to local suppliers, stores, and restaurants. (small-scale gardening)

Dairy Farming

Traditionally local farms and businesses supplying dairy products in small geographic areas.

Milk shed

The geographic distance that milk is delivered

Mediterranean agriculture

Practiced in regions with hot-dry summers, mild winters, narrow valleys, and some type of irrigation system, often grown crops are figs, dates, olives, and grapes.

transhumance

The seasonal herding of animals from higher elevations in the summer to lower elevations and valleys in the winter.

Livestock Ranching

Form of commercial agriculture found in the developed world, livestock graze over large areas while the owners remain in the same place

Clustered settlements

Form of settlement where residents live in close proximity to one another. Houses and farms are near each other and farmland/pasture surrounds them.

Dispersed settlements

Houses and buildings are isolated from one another, and all the homes in a settlement are distributed over a large area.

Linear settlements

Houses and buildings extend in a long line that usually follows a land feature, such as a riverfront, coast, or hill, or aligns along a transportation route.

Agroecosystem

An ecosystem modified for agricultural use

foragers

Small nomadic groups who had primarily plant-based diets and ate small animals or fish for protein.

suburbanization

The shifting of population from cities into surrounding suburbs

First Agricultural Revolution

Origin of farming marked by the domestication of plants and animals, shift from foraging to farming

Domestication

The deliberate effort to grow plants and raise animals, making plants and animals adapt to human demands, and using selective breeding to develop desirable characteristics.

Cash crop

A crop that is produced for its commercial value

Fertile Crescent

First major hearth of agriculture in Southwest Asia

Agricultural hearth

Each area where different groups began to domesticate plants and animals

Columbian Exchange

The global movement of plants, animals, ideas and disease between the Americas, Europe, and Africa

Second Agricultural Revolution

Beginning in the 1700s, used the advances of the Industrial Revolution to increase food supplies and support population growth, included the mechanization of farming

Enclosure system

A series of laws enacted by the British government that enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use. (Communal land becomes private land)

Crop rotation

The technique of planting different crops from year to year on the same plot of land in order to restore nutrients back into the soil.

Global supply chains

Same as commodity chains but on a global scale, enabling the delivery of a product between two different countries.

Third Agricultural Revolution

Beginning in the early 20th century, science, research, and technology expanded mechanization of farming to develop new global agricultural systems, advancing agriculture

Green Revolution

During the 1950s and 1960s, scientists used increased knowledge of genetics to develop new high-yield strains of grain crops

hybridization

The process of breeding two plants that have desirable characteristics to produce a single seed with both characteristics

Genetically modified organism (GMO)

Humans use engineering techniques to change the DNA of a seed to increase yields, resist disease, and withstand chemicals

Bid-rent theory

The idea that there is a distance decay relationship between proximity to the urban market and the value of the land

Capital intensive

Uses expensive machinery and other inputs to farm

Labor intensive

Farms produce large quantities of product, so need many to tend and harvest crops

Factory farming

Capital-intensive livestock operation in which many animals are kept in close quarters, and bred and fed in a controlled environment

aquaculture

A type of intensive farming where fish, shellfish, or water plants are raised in netted areas in the sea, tanks, or other bodies of water

double-cropping

The planting and harvesting on the same parcel of land twice per year, to maximize output on a small amount of land

intercropping

Also known as multicropping, when farmers grow two or more crops simultaneously on the same field.

monoculture

Refers to the agricultural system of planting one crop or raising one type of animal annually

monocropping

The cultivation of one or two crops that were rotated seasonally - commonly corn, soybeans, wheat, or cotton.

feedlots

Confined spaces in which cattle and hogs have limited movement (CAFOs)

agribusiness

Large scale system that includes the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment .

reservoirs

Artificial lakes created by building dams across rivers and streams, they are a common source of irrigation for crops in the United States

Vertical integration

Occurs when a company controls more than one stage of the production process

Subsidies

Low-cost loans, insurance, and payments given by the government to combat rising costs of production

Commodity chain

Complex network that connects places of production with distribution to consumers

aquifers

Layers of underground sand, gravel, and rocks that contain and can release a usable amount of water

biodiversity

The variety of organisms living in a location

Von Thünen Model

Created by a farm owner in Germany in 1826, an economic model that suggested a pattern for the types of products that farmers would produce at different positions relative to the market where they sold their goods.

horticulture

A type of agriculture that includes market gardening/truck farming and dairy farming in the zone closest to the market

Free-market economy

Where supply and demand determine the outcome of competition for land

Comparative advantage

Naturally occurring beneficial conditions for profit or growth

Precision agriculture

Uses a variety of cutting edge technologies to apply inputs such as water and fertilizer with pinpoint accuracy to specific parts of fields in order to maximize crop yields

Fair trade movement

Global campaign to fix unfair practices and protect the ability of farmers to earn a living.

infrastructure

Includes roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, electrical grids, sewers, telecommunications, etc. of a country to help it function.

Dual-agricultural economy

Refers to two agricultural sectors in the same country or region that have different levels of technology and different patterns of demand

desertification

Land degradation of the natural vegetation in arid areas causes fertile land to become infertile

salinization

Occurs when salts from water used by plants remain in the soil, decreasing a plant's ability to uptake water and nutrients

Terrace farming

Commonly practiced by subsistence farmers, farmers build a series of steps into the side of a hill to create flat surfaces for farming

Debt-for-nature swaps

Peripheral countries borrow money, in exchange for local investment in conservation measures

wetlands

Low-lying areas that contain a significant amount of water at or near the surface

deforestation

Removal of large tracts of forest

Slash-and-burn agriculture

An early (traditional) subsistence farming technique, a type of shifting cultivation, to maintain the land. They clear the land by cutting down the trees and brush, and after vegetation dries, burns it resulting in a nutrient-rich ash fertilizer.

biotechnology

The science of altering living organisms, often through genetic manipulation, to create new products for specific purposes.

Organic food

Crops that are non-GMO, produced without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers and use sustainable growing practices

Value-added farming

Crops that customers are willing to pay more for because of special qualities or because they are difficult to acquire

Local-food movement

Trend by consumers seeking out food produced nearby to reduce environmental consequences of farming

Community gardens

Urban farming model where people within a community form their own gardens to share agricultural products with family, friends, and perhaps those in need rather than as a business

Community -supported agriculture (CSA)

Strategy of the local-food movement that brings producers and consumers into a type of partnership. Consumers buy a share or subscribe to a quantity of crops for a season.

Food insecurity

Households lack access to adequate food because of limited money or other resources

Food desert

A neighborhood where residents have little to no access to healthy and affordable food

tariff

Tax on imports